Fewflower Milkweed
Asclepias lanceolata Walter
A tall, sparse, brilliant orange-red milkweed of coastal marsh and wet savanna. Imagine butterfly weed stretched to five feet, standing in a brackish ditch with only a handful of flowers per head.
Also called Cedar Hill Milkweed, Purple Silkweed.
- Height
- 2 ft–5 ft
- Spread
- 10 in–1.5 ft
- Flowers
- orange, red
- Bloom
- May to August
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil moisture
- Wet
- USDA zones
- 6–10
- Leaves
- Opposite, narrow
- Sap
- Milky latex
- Roots
- Fibrous, clump-forming and easy to move
- Stratification
- 30 days cold-moist
- Range
- 12 states
When it flowers
Fewflower Milkweed blooms May to August, peaking in June and July.
How to identify it
- Tall unbranched stem with very few, very narrow leaf pairs.
- Flowers vivid orange-red, in small clusters of a dozen or fewer.
- Coastal wetlands, brackish marsh edges and wet pine savanna.
Ecology and wildlife value
A striking nectar plant in coastal wetlands and a modest monarch host along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Growing fewflower milkweed
Needs constantly wet, acidic soil and full sun, so treat it as a bog garden plant.
Seed needs about 30 days of cold-moist stratification. Fibrous, clump-forming and easy to move. See how to plant milkweed seed for the full method.
Cautions
Standard milkweed cautions. More on milkweed toxicity.
Where fewflower milkweed grows
Recorded in 12 states: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia.
Distribution is generalized to state level. For county-level maps see USDA PLANTS and BONAP.
References and further reading
Names, ranges and conservation status here are drawn from the databases below. Where those disagree with a regional flora, trust the flora.
- Plants of the World Online 30049929-2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accepted name, authorship and global distribution.
- GBIF 3170251. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Aggregated occurrence records.
- iNaturalist 158744. Community observations, photographs and phenology.
- Wikipedia. General-audience article on this species.
- BONAP county distribution map. Biota of North America Program. County-level range map.
- NatureServe Explorer. Conservation status ranks at global and state level.
- World Flora Online. Nomenclature and synonymy.
- Woodson, R. E. (1954). The North American species of Asclepias L.. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 41(1): 1–211. The monograph the modern taxonomy of the genus still rests on. View
- Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds.) (2026). Flora of North America North of Mexico. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford. Accepted names, keys and descriptions for the North American flora. View
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Nomenclature and global distribution, keyed to IPNI name identifiers. View
- Kartesz, J. T. (Biota of North America Program) (2026). North American Plant Atlas. BONAP, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. County-level distribution maps, the basis for the ranges generalized here. View
- USDA, NRCS (2026). The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, North Carolina. State-level distribution, wetland status and nomenclature. View
- Agrawal, A. A. (2017). Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution. Princeton University Press. The standard general account of the milkweed and monarch relationship. View
Cite this page
This page is licensed CC BY 4.0. Quote it, adapt it and reuse it, including commercially, as long as you credit Milkweed USA and link back.
Milkweed USA. (2026). Fewflower Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/fewflower-milkweed/
"Fewflower Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/fewflower-milkweed/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "Fewflower Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/fewflower-milkweed/.
@misc{milkweedusa_speciesfewflowermilkweed,
title = {Fewflower Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/fewflower-milkweed/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}